Intelligence oversight not fit for purpose

The fact the government has ended the Gibson inquiry into torture allegations (Report, 19 January) on the grounds of further police investigations of the Libyan cases underlines the inadequacy of arrangements for oversight of intelligence agencies in the UK. First, given the seriousness of collusion in torture, the police will want to investigate the Libyan cases urgently. And given the documentary evidence found in Tripoli, including identification of relevant intelligence personnel and, presumably, a documentary trail of authorisation material in the Foreign Office, why should this take as long as Ken Clarke suggests?

Second, even if, as promised, an eventual judge-led inquiry is established, it will need to be on firmer grounds than Gibson's so that victims, their lawyers and civil society organisations agree to participate. Means must be found to enable victims to engage with the evidence of their mistreatment. Even so, such an improved inquiry would be no substitute for setting up a permanent, independent office for the monitoring and investigation of intelligence activities in which the staff have complete access to the agencies' personnel and files. This is a necessary complement to the strengthened intelligence and security committee envisaged in the recent green paper. Current arrangements cannot command public confidence in the security and intelligence agencies that the government seeks to achieve via oversight, and this latest development will simply add to the existing suspicion that this lack of confidence is not wholly unjustified.Peter GillUniversity of Liverpool,Professor Mark PhythianUniversity of Leicester, authors of Intelligence in an Insecure World

• Mehdi Hasan is right to characterise the killing of a succession of Iranian nuclear physicists as terrorism (Comment, 17 January). Taken with other reported acts of sabotage by US, Israeli and British intelligence services to disrupt Iran's nuclear programme, the tightening of sanctions, and preparations for US and British missile strikes, these obscene murders could be the prelude to a war which would plunge the whole region into chaos.Michael RandleShipley, West Yorkshire